Tennis: Okutoyi through to US Open doubles second round

Kenya's Angela Okutoyi and her Dutch partner Rose Marie Nijkamp after winning the Wimbledon Open doubles Junior Championships at the grass courts of All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, England on July 9 2022. [Courtesy]

Former Africa tennis junior champions Angela Okutoyi has bounced back from her US Open junior singles disappointment to advance through to the second round of the doubles category on Thursday.

Alongside her Dutch partner Rose Marie Nijkamp, the duo who won the Wimbledon junior doubles title, made a bright start in the doubles on the hard courts of the Flushing Meadows, New York in the United States of America.

Okutoyi and Nijkamp saw off fifth seeds Qavia Lopez (USA) and Christine Svendsen (Denmark) 2-0 to advance to the next stage.

The duo were down in the first set from the first serve before recovering to win 6-1.

In the second set, Lopez and Svendsen threatened to bounce back but Okutoyi and Nijkamp were proved too smart and strong for them as they fought back and forth to win 6-3.

Okutoyi and her Dutch partner will meet Americans Natalie Block and Piper Charney at in the second round for a place in the quarter-finals.

Block and Charney outwitted the Italian pair of Georgia Pedone and Federica Urgesi 6-2, 4-6, 10-2.

The win is a plus for Okutoyi who was eliminated in singles by Australian Taylah Preston 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 in the second round.

The 18-year-old Kenyan tennis star reached the second round after breezing past German's Carolina Kuhl by straight sets in the first round on Sunday evening.

Okutoyi stunned Kuhl 7-6, 7-5 to complete a sweet revenge who had lost to the German 6-2, 6-3 in the second round of the JA Cape Town in South Africa last year in October.

Last Saturday, Okutoyi added another accolade to her trophy cabinet as she bagged the Girls Doubles title in the J1 Repentigny tournament that took place in Canada

Alongside her Polish partner Malwina Rowinska, Okutoyi, staged a thrilling comeback from a set down to claim the trophy after the duo beat Ella Sidel (Germany) and Amelia Waligora (Belgium) 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 in the nail biting finale.